The New Avis App

About this entry

In this high speed world we live in, Avis wants to change the way people rent cars so that those extra 10 minutes spent going to the counter could instead be spent enjoying a vacation, enjoying time with loved ones, or catching that last minute flight home. With the new Avis app, we aim to streamline the customer experience so that renting a car is as easy and convenient as possible. The new Avis app is designed to give our travelers a seamless, expedited customer experience so that their time—the most precious thing we humans possess—can be given back to them, their loved ones, and the things that matter most.

Why does this entry deserve to win?

To create this awesome app, we knew that our operations team would be crucial. We needed connected cars that could be unlocked with an app and operate with a level of intelligence that was superior to the regular rental car. We needed to completely overhaul our modern fleet to create something thoroughly futuristic. After upgrading our cars with the superior intelligence necessary to speak to our app, we were able to unlock the features of the future. Our roll out started small, with the app being offered at select airports and to only a small group of longtime customers who we knew would give us valuable feedback. After months in beta, the new Avis app was made public in the Summer of 2016.

Avis app features:

* Make, modify or cancel reservations 24/7.

* Exchange or upgrade your car before arriving at the rental location, quickly return your car, lock and unlock your car and more real-time rental features

*Receive push notifications telling you what parking spot your rental is waiting for you in and what spot to return it

*Swipe to upgrade or change current cars on site

*Add ancillaries to your rental such as car seats, tablets and XM radio

* Redeem your points for the available rewards you want – including complimentary rentals, upgrades with no blackout dates and more.

* Get a receipt and view past rentals any time.

* Receive Roadside Assistance for immediate help

To get the word out, we teamed up with 360 PR and the media company Cycle to launch an extensive marketing campaign for the new app. We started off by debuting the new Avis app in an interview with Avis Budget Group CEO Larry De Shon on CBS "This Morning." We then enlisted influential content creators from Cycle's network of exclusive influencer talent—including intrepid travel photographers like @JordanHerschel (547K followers), @GriffinLamb (348K), and @DeniseBovee (116K)—to document their adventures using the new Avis app on their popular Instagram channels. The influencers were key to driving awareness—producing and distributing stunning visual stories that authentically integrated the app and highlighted key features. These road trip stories unfolded organically across Instagram, and we used paid media to amplify the content from the influencers' channels to travelers and people interested in car rentals. Images from the influencer campaign were later repurposed for app download ads placed across social platforms.

Results

With the help of 360 PR, our official debut of the Avis app on CBS "This Morning" led to millions of PR impressions thanks to follow up coverage from media outlets like Mashable, Engadget, USA Today, Fortune, Lifehacker, The LA Times, Nasdaq, MediaPost, and many more.

Our influencer campaign, managed by Cycle, generated nearly 14 million impressions and just shy of 900,000 total engagements. The Cycle campaign alone was directly responsible for 57,000 app downloads (at a minimum) thanks to user engagements with the app download ads we built using influencer imagery.

Since the new Avis app was released to the public in July of 2016, we've seen more than 380,000 installations from Avis preferred profiles. These are customers who have given us their license and payment information, allowing them to rent with just the click of a button.

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